On 9th November, 1938, the Nazis initiated pogroms against the Jewish population in all Nazi territories. Approximately 91 Jews were killed, 30,000 were arrested and 191 synagogues were destroyed. Many shops and other Jewish businesses were destroyed and looted.

This night became known as Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass), named after the glass from the windows of the shops and synagogues which were looted, burnt and vandalised during the pogrom.

On this 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht, HMDT urge everyone, individually and collectively, to ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed during the Holocaust and more recent genocides are neither forgotten nor repeated by remembering the events of the past, reflecting on the present and reacting to create a better future.

Survivor Albert Friedlander, recounts his experience in Berlin after Kristallnacht: “There was a lot of glass on the streets. We lived in the West End, surrounded by shops, many of them Jewish. This was late at night and it was dark; but we had no trouble in picking out the Jewish shops. They had been looted, the windows had been smashed, and there were ashes, rubble and debris outside some of the shops. We had not seen how our fellow Jews had been treated: beaten, taken to prison, some of them never to return. But in our hiding place, listening to our friends, we heard more and more of the story of Kristallnacht.” You can read more about Albert Friedlander’s experience on the HMDT site: http://www.hmd.org.uk/resources/item/103/